Stopper for wire-hooded bottles



Feb. 10, 1959 sc ETAL STOPPER FOR WIRE-HOODED BOTTLES Filed Aug. 13, 1956 INVENTORS A ND awm nrromvn FR BYROBEET United States Patent O STOPPER FOR WIRE-HOODED BOTTLES Robert F. Schnier, Millbrae, and Fred McFarland, Redwood City, Calif., assignors to I. F. Schnier. Company, Inc., San Francisco, Calif., a corporation of California Application August 13, 1956, Serial No. 603,693

Claims. (-Cl. 215-47) This invention relates to plastic stoppers or corks for bottles employing a wire hood retainer, and more parti-cularly relates to such devices which are generally employed as closures for bottles in which relatively substantial gas pressure is generated or maintained in the bottle, such as is a well-known practice in bottling of champagne and other gas-generating liquids.

In the bottling of such liquids it is common practice to insure the stopper against blowouts, by binding the stopper within the opening of the bottle neck by means of a wire hood or harness after the contents have been placed in the bottle and the stopper inserted.

It is the purpose'of this invention to provide a plastic stopper for bottles which inherently seals the bottle as a closure and is especially adapted to receive thereover a Wire hood or harness for locking the stopper against blowout responsive to gas pressure generated or maintained in the bottle.

Briefly, the invention comprises a plastic stopper for the open neck of a bottle, the stopper having a head and a hollow recessed shank, the shank preferably being externally tapered from the head toward a free terminal end, such taper having a frosted surface finish. The head extends radially outwardlyfrom the shank and is provided at its underface with an annular groove to receive the lip of the open end of a bottle neck, and being provided with a substantially circular crown overlying the adjacent end of the hollow recess of the shank, providing at the base of the crown an annular groove for receiving a ring of a twisted wire hood, the side wall of the head portion being inclined generally downwardly and outwardly from said groove preferably with a degree of arc, channels being indented in the saidside wall for receiving therein interwovenwire legs of the hood memher. The ends of the legs are then separated into separate wire strands which may then be twisted circumferentially about the bottle neck below an appropriate bead, which is suitably spaced from the lip at the opening of the bottle neck.

For a more detailed description of the invention reference is made to one exemplification thereof which is described herein and illustrated in the accompanying drawing which is made a part hereof.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the closure of the invention, a bottle neck being shown fragmentarily.

Fig. 2 is a vertical enlarged transversely central section on line 22 of Fig. 1'.

Fig. 3is a plan view of Fig. 2.

Figure 4 is a vertical enlarged section taken along line 4-4 of Figure 3.

Referring to the drawing in which like reference characters indicate corresponding parts in the several views,

indicates generally a bottle of the type in connection with which the stopper is efliciently employed, the bottle per se being Well known and having an elongated neck 11 which is substantially internally cylindrical adjacent the open end portion, the open end having a radially out- 2,873,038 Patented Feb. 10, 1959 ICC ward external annular lip 12, and a radially outwardly extended annular shoulder bead 13 which is spaced from said lip.

The closure for said opening of the bottle comprises a stopper indicated 14, the stopper being made of a semirigid difiicultly yieldable plastic material, such as those having the characteristics of polyethylene or vinyl resins, and having a head 15 preferably substantially circular in plan and an integral shank l6 coaxially depending from the under face of the head, the major portion of the length of the outer wall of the shank being almost imperceptibly tapered convergingly from the head toward its opposite free end portion 17, one to two degrees of angle of taper being sufficient, said tapered portion of the shank being lightly frosted as indicated by stippling lit, since such frosting provides a myriad of infinitesimal irregularities 0n the exterior surface of the shank which effects a more secure seal against the internal wall of the bottle neck, as compared with a polished or smooth shank surface. A hollow bore 19 is recessed into the shank and extends therethrough and into the head portion of the stopper, the bore being open at the free terminal end 17, and closed at the opposite end by a relatively thin layer of a central crown portion 20 of the head member, said central portion being preferably convex, as will be further described. Adjacent to its free terminal end 17 the exterior wall of the shank has a bevel 21 converging downwardly and inwardly to a relatively thin edge which provides a more resilient or deformable terminal end edge as a lead edge for inserting the stopper in a bottle neck. This bevel is of a greater degree of incline than the frosted portion 18, and is normally not frosted since it has no binding frictional contact with the bottle neck.

The head portion 15 of the stopper is, as stated, integral with the shank and comprises a molded bodyhaving the bore 19 extending axially thereinto, sufficiently to provide a relatively thin wall of the crown 2i overlying the bore. The advantage of such thin wall is that it may be readily perforated by a sharp pointed testing instrument for determining the gas pressure in a selected number of the sealed bottles as is customary and frequently required by law, to demonstrate that the gas pressure in the bottle meets specifications of prescribed standards. providing the arcuate crown 20 having at the circumference of its base an annular crown groove 22 from which there extends outwardly and downwardly a sidewall generally indicated 23 which, in section as shown in Fig. 2, is generally convexedly arcuate in character, providingat the peripheral circumference of its lower end an overhanging portion the diameter of which is substantially greater than the open end of the bottle and the lower face of which provides a shoulder 24 which is strong and rigid due to the solid body of the head member adjacent said shoulder, the solid body of said shoulder extending radially inwardly as at 25 to provide an inverted recesssed annular groove 26 for receiving therein the open end and lip 12 of the bottle neck, the shank, as heretofore described, being integrally connected to the head at the inner edge of said inverted groove.

The side wall 23 of the head has relatively spaced flutes 27, which radiate from the groove 22 and are therefore relatively narrow at said groove and taper divergingly' outwardly, and arcuately downwardly, said flutes having therebetween a plurality of circumferentially spaced channels 28 which radiate from the annular crown groove 22 and incline outwardly and downwardly in general conformity with the incline of the side wall 23. These channels are preferably in multiples of four, twelve being shown herein, the channels being circumferentially This relatively thin layer is formed convexly' evenly spaced relatively, one channel in each group or multiple of four being positioned at 90 degree angularity relative to a channel in another of such groups whereby legs of a twisted wire hood or harness 29 (to be further described), may lie within such 90 degree channels. The radiating flutes 27 have a substantially greater height or thickness 30 adjacent to said annular groove 22 than at the other or outer end thereof which is at the circumferential shoulder 24, such greater height 30 defining an outer wall for groove 22, as in Fig. 4, whereby the inner ends of the valleys of the channels 28 are substantially coplanar with the crown groove, and are deeper adjacent said groove 22 than at the opposite end thereof adjacent the circumference of the shoulder 24, at which latter point the channels, the flutes and the shoulder, substantially merge into the peripheral edge.

The twisted wire hood or harness 29 which is a wellknown mechanical device, has a generally circular singlewire crown strand portion 31 which lies in annular groove 22 and having four legs 32 of intertwisted wire which extend at 90 degrees spacing from the circular crown strand, one of such legs passing through each of the 90 degree channels 28, the width of the portion of the channels 28 adjacent the annular groove and the coplanar relation thereof permitting the confluence of the twisted wire to be turned into the channel in the plane of the crown groove as at 33. Since the radially inner walls of the flutes are of greater height than the crown groove, the annular crown strand of wire is securely locked against displacement by lateral slippage in the groove, and both the crown strand and the legs are locked by the channels'against rotative slippage; and since the channels are radial and extend from the crown groove to a rigid shoulder 24, the stopper provides a three-point lock of the hood so that there is no surplus length of loose wire portion which could be displaced in later handling of a sealed bottle and thus cause leaks of the contained gasses which is the purpose of this type of closure to seal. These twisted wire legs are of suflicient length to extend through the length of channels .28, past the shoulder 24, against which they may be pulled very tightly due to the solid body of said shoulder, said twisted wire portions extending slightly beyond the annular bead 13 of the bottle neck, at which point the intertwisted portion of the wire legs terminates, and the separated single strands of wire are turned beneath said bead to provide a circular binding wire 34 which is bound around the bottle neck beneath said bead, and the two free ends again intertwisted beneath said bead at one side of the bottle neck as at 35, whereupon the slack in said single strand is taken up and the single strand securely locked in tight binding engagement against the bottle by a twisted loop 36 at the opposite side of the bottle neck beneath the bead.

It is to be observed that while only four of the channels 28 are employed at one time, in one bottle closure, the additional channels provide a greater facility for gripping and securing the hood at various positions whereby frictional resistance to rotation is more easily overcome in the inserting and removal of the stopper.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and patentable is:

1. A bottle closure comprising an integral stopper of plastic material having a head, a hollow shank of lesser diameter than the head extending from the underface of the head and thereby providing a shoulder circumferentially of the head, the body of the head being solid between the shoulder and the shank, said head having at its opposite upper face a central convex portion having a substantially annular crown groove radially spaced from the axis of said central convex portion for receiving therein a crown strand of a wire hood circumferentially of the convex portion, the head having a side wall portion the outer face of which tapers radially outwardly and downwardly from said groove toward the circumferential shoulder, the said side wall portion having a plurality of flutes circumferentially spaced relatively and radiating from the crown groove substantially to the circumferential shoulder, the radially inner end of the flutes being raised substantially above the plane of the crown groove and defining an outer circumferential wall around the crown groove and the opposite radial side edges of the flutes diverging relatively from said crown groove, the spacing of the flutes providing. radial channels therebetween the inner ends of which are open at the crown groove and the opposite ends of which extend substantially to the outer ends of the flutes, the valleys of the channels at said inner ends being substantially in the same plane as the valley of the crown groove whereby legs of a wire hood may be turned from the crown groove into said channels at the plane of the crown groove and the crown strand therein.

2. A bottle closing stopper as set forth in claim 1 and in which the surface of the outer wall of the shank is frosted whereby infinitesimal irregularities are provided on said surface.

3. A stopper for bottles as set forth in claim 1, the crown portion being convex, and the hollow body providing a recess open at its free terminal end, the recess extending into the head portion suificiently to provide a relatively thin closure wall centrally of the head portion.

4. A stopper for bottles as set forth in claim 1, the radially o-uter ends of the flutes and the channels substantially merging into said shoulder, the underface of the head at said circumferential shoulder extending radially inwardly to said shank and having an annular groove in said underface for receiving the open end of a bottle neck.

5. A bottle closure of the character described as set forth in claim 1, and including the combination therewith of a bottle having an open neck and an annular bead spaced from said neck opening, and a wire hood having a crown strand and a plurality of legs of inter-twisted wire strands extending therefrom, said crown strand being disposed in the crown gr ove of the stopper, and said legs of intertwisted wire strands extending radially from the crown strand in the plane of the crown groove and through the channels between the flutes whereby they engage and extend beyond the shoulder of the stopper and may engage a remote edge portion of said bead of the bottle neck, the intertwisted wire strands of said legs being separated at the remote edge of said bead of the bottle neck and wound circumferentially around said neck closely beyond said bead and having the said separate strands interlocked beyond said head to provide a secure integral wire band around the bottle neck below said bead.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 53,090 Bousiques Mar. 6, 15556 2,169,194 Geyer et a1. Aug. 8, 1939 FOREIGN PATENTS 324,754 France Dec. 20, 1902 725,860 Great Britain Mar. 9, 1955 1,111,767 France Nov. 2, 1955 

